Cobblers boss happy with tough early examinations
Cobblers boss Aidy Boothroyd expects Tuesday night’s visitors Rotherham United to be one of the strongest sides in League 2 this term.
“Rotherham are one of the favourites amongst the pundits and these first three games will be a great indication of where we are,” he said.
“I’m happy with the team in many ways but you have always got to look to improve it.
“There are lots of areas where we can improve but you are going to get that because when a team at any level is thrown together it does take time for the team to get used to each other.
“After every game I always write down what’s our priority and I think our priority at the moment is just to rest, recover and reflect on what was a really good point at the weekend.
“The reason we got that point is because we worked extremely hard for each other, we defended well and arguably we could have nicked it at the end with Alex Nicholls header.
“The most important thing is to focus on the positives and we’ve shown that we have got that toughness about us to dig in and get a result.
“Everyone is fit and available for Tuesday, we’ve got the usual bumps and bruises that you are always going to get but everybody is okay.
“Re watching Saturday’s game I think the weather played its part and by the end both teams looked very tired.
“Because of the size of the squad and the amount of games we’ve played and have got coming up we need to make sure that we manage the players properly and Luke Guttridge has played an awful lot of football and was in a lot in the close season so I just thought it was best to change it up a bit on Saturday.
“I will do that where I can within games and the players that are on the bench are there for a reason."
The Cobblers boss also commented on media reports that striker Jake Robinson tweeted his frustration about not being involved on Saturday.
“Anybody that is in charge of a group of people can’t please all of the people all of the time," he said.
"If I went out of my way to keep everybody happy then two things would happen, one we’d lose a lot of games and two I’d be out of a job very quickly.
“Everybody thinks they should be playing, we’ve got the squad tighter but they still can’t all play.
“What I am is blunt to a point of being brutally honest. My door is always open and any player can always come and see me. They might not like what I’ve got to say but I will give them what my opinion is.
“I can’t do any more than that and if people don’t like it then they can move on.”